.NET Development Tools for Business & Game Design

Links

For the selection of game development tools, please scroll down the page…

Microsoft Developer Tools

If you require a database engine for your applications you can’t go wrong with one of the freely available selections from the list below.

For developers who are expected to deploy their applications in SQL Server enterprise settings, it is recommended then that you use SQL Server Developer Edition where all of the features of the enterprise server are available. For those who need large-scale database engines that are Open-Source you should use either Firebird Server, MySQL, or PostgreSQL.

For developing with Microsoft C# or VB.NET, Visual Studio is still the best freely available IDE and with Visual Studio 2015 and greater, the IDE is now re-engineered to be a complete package similar to the professional edition but in Community Edition form.

Software for Beginning Game Developers

If you are brand new to game development and do not want to attempt learning a complex development language such as C/C++, C#, or Java, you may want to consider one of the easiest set of game development environments available; development packages from The Game Creators

This group has been around for quite a long time and now offer modern development packages for any type of game development interest…

AppGame Kit – for coding your games in the easy to learn Dark Basic language

Software Development Environments for Game Developers

Unity3d
The current top game development environment available with tons of resources and learning tools

CryEngine
A Unity3d-like development environment with a growing set of resources. This is a mature engine.

Wave Engine
This is a mature engine that is oriented towards C# development. Like CryEngine, the Wave Engine site provides its own set of resources plus learning tools.

Xenko
An up and coming contender to Unity3d; still in its infancy but appears to be maturing quickly. Not for new game developers.

Game Engines for Game Developers Who Want to Code

MONOGAME
This game engine is the continuation of the highly popular XNA engine, which Microsoft decided to discontinue but in Open Source format. This engine is now completely separate from the original XNA implementation, though it retains all of the characteristics of coding for XNA. This engine supports both DirectX as well as OpneGL and as a result can be used to develop game applications on Windows (Visual Studio), Linux (MonoDevelop), and the Mac (MonoDevelop). This engine is oriented towards C# developers, though VB.NET developers can also use the engine. However, currently there are no VB.NET templates.

LIBGDX
This is a sophisticated game development engine similar in style to MONOGAME but is specifically for Java Developers. Like MONOGAME, LIBGDX can be used to develop cross-platform gaming applications.